Easy Dinners for Homeschool Families - Crockpot Lasagna!

This is another one of those "I can't believe it's THIS easy" recipes. But seriously, it is. Ten minutes and an afternoon in the crockpot, and you're set. Unfortunately I can't eat this on my current diet, but it is an awesome family dish.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Lasagna

8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
2 each 28 oz. jars spaghetti sauce
4 oz. can sliced mushrooms, optional
15 oz. ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese (my choice!), or cream cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Spread a bit of sauce on the bottom of a greased crockpot. Break noodles; Place half in bottom of slow cooker.

2. Brown ground beef in sauce pan, stir in Italian seasoning. Spread half over noodles in slow cooker.

3. Layer half of sauce, half of mushrooms (opt.), half of ricotta/cottage cheese, and half of mozzarella cheese over beef. Repeat layers.

4. Cover, cook on low 5 hours from fridge or 3-4 hours from prep (room temp).

Easy Dinners for Homeschool Families - Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls!

This recipe comes straight from one of my all-time-favorite blogs, Raising Arrows!

Recipe - Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls

Usually when I see recipes this easy, I tend to ignore them. I've learned (painfully) that recipes claiming "5 ingredients, 5 minutes!" usually have results somewhere in between "forgettable" and "abysmal."

But this recipe was different! It really was easy and fast, and it was delicious! For us, this was a definite keeper!

- For our family (five people), we made a half-recipe.

- It would be easy to stretch this further by increasing the vegetables - for example, by doubling the cabbage and/or the onion.

- My husband and the boys immediately transformed this dish into an Asian dinner with lots of Asian sauces. I preferred mine plain - but both versions were good!

- For the carb-eaters of the family, I served this over rice. For myself, I ate it without rice. An added bonus - it fits into my very-low-carb diet perfectly!

Enjoy!

Easy Dinners for Homeschool Families - Mexican Mess!

I found this super-easy recipe several years ago on the blog Smockity Frocks, and it's become a staple at our house. Seriously - six ingredients and about five minutes of time invested. What's not to love? Especially when you're a homeschool mama, this recipe is an enormous blessing. Serve over chips or like chili with chips to dip.

Mexican Mess

(I call it Mexican Dip to make it go down a bit more easily with the family!)

An easy way to stretch this meal is simply to add more beans. I add two cans for our family, and it would be easy to keep adding - perhaps up to four or five cans.

Enjoy! 

Easy Dinners for Homeschool Families - Italian Soup

I've decided to run a new series, dear friends! And here it is...

"Easy Dinners for Homeschool Families"

As a homeschooler, my days are FULL. And by "full," I mean that I hit the ground running and just go from morning till bedtime. Oftentimes, when it comes to making dinner, I'm exhausted and ready to stop for a break, not dive into another huge, messy project.

Thus, this series!

This is going to be a very low-tech series. It won't be regular, it won't be scheduled, and it won't have fancy pictures or step-by-step instructions. For that, you're on your own. I'm just going to post either the link or the typed recipe of any dinner dish I find that works well for a busy homeschool family (interpretation = it's easy to make!).

Our first dinner dish - Italian Soup! Enjoy!

Italian Soup

1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed if present
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
One 14 ½-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
½ tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
½ tsp. dried basil, crushed
¼ tsp. dried thyme, crushed
2 14-oz cans chicken broth, or equivalent of homemade

Saute sausage, onion, and garlic until sausage is brown. Combine with all other ingredients in crockpot.

LOW for 8-10 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours.

If you want to add pasta: Add another can of chicken broth to the mix. At the very end turn to HIGH, add ½ cup dry orzo or broken cappellini pasta, and cook for 20 minutes.

Recommended topping: Parmesan cheese.

Good optional ingredients: Cooked green beans, some sort of green (kale or spinach), or cooked white beans.

My changes: I doubled the carrot and celery, and would add still more next time.